The Hymn of the Robe of Glory

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HYMN
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THE ROBE
OF GLORY
ECHOES
BY
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BY
ECHOES
FROM
THE
MEAD
GNOSIS
VOL.
G. R. S.
X.
THE
HYMN OF
THE ROBE
OF GLORY
THEOSOPHICAL
PUBLISHING
LONDON
AND
BENARES
SOCIETY
1908
THE
ECHOES FROM THE
GNOSIS.
Under
this general title
now
is
being published
drawn from, or based
the
mystic, theosophic and gnostic writings
upon,
of the ancients, so as to make more easily audible
a series of small volumes,
for the ever- widening circle of those
some echoes
things,
initiatory lore of
are
many who
who
love such
of the mystic experiences
their spiritual ancestry.
love the
life
of the spirit,
and
There
and who
long for the light of gnostic illumination, but who
are not sufficiently equipped to study the writings
of the ancients at first hand, or to follow un
These
aided the labours of scholars.
are therefore
intended to serve as
to the study of the
subject
they
even
;
and
it is
may become
heard
of
more
difficult
the
some,
volumes
introduction
literature of the
at the
same time
who have
as yet not
hoped that
for
little
Gnosis,
stepping-stones
higher things.
G. R. S. M.
to
ECHOES
FROM THE
GNOSIS
VOL.
I.
VOL.
II.
VOL.
III.
VOL. IV.
VOL.
V.
VOL. VI.
THE GNOSIS OF THE MIND.
THE HYMNS OF HERMES.
THE VISION OF ARID/EUS.
THE HYMN OF JESUS.
THE MYSTERIES OF MITHRA.
A MITHRIAC RITUAL.
THE GNOSTIC CRUCIFIXION.
VOL. VIII. THE CHALDEAN ORACLES, I.
VOL. IX. THE CHALDEAN ORACLES, II.
VOL. X. THE HYMN OF THE ROBE
VOL. VII.
OF GLORY.
PROPOSED SUBJECTS FOR
FORTHCOMING VOLUMES
THE WEDDING-SONG OF WISDOM
THE WORDS OF HERACLITUS.
THE HYMN OF THE ROBE OF
GLORY.
CONTENTS.
PREAMBLE
. .
.
.
.
.
THE HYMN ....
COMMENTS
The Pearl
.
.
.
.
-.15
3
.
. .
.
.
.
A
Story of the Infancy
The Two Couriers
.
.
30
-.33
Egypt
The Parable of the Prodigal
The Dual Sonship
The Robe of Glory
The
NOTES
PAGE
9
.
Allegorical
.
.
38
4
.
.
.
.
.
.
46
57
59
.
.
67
61
Geography
.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
of the Apostles (London,
238-245.
Noldecke (T.), Rev. of Wright, Zeitschrift der deutschen
morgenldndischen Gesellschdft (1871), pp. 670 679.
Wright (W.), Apocryphal Acts
1871),
Macke
ii.
Lieder
(K.), "Syrische
Studie iiber die
gnostischen Ursprungs.
apocryphen syrischen
Thomasacten," Theologische Quartalschrift (Tubin
gen, 1874), pp. 24 -70.
Eine
Lipsius (R.
A.),
Apostellegenden
292
Bevan
300;
ii.
Die apocryphen Apostelgeschichten u.
(Brunswick, 1883, 1884), i. pp.
pt.
ii.
p. 422.
The Hymn of the Soul Texts and Studies
(Cambridge, 1897), vol. v., no. 3.
Hilgenfeld (A.), Rev. of Bevan, Berliner philologischt
(A. A.),
Wochenschrift (Berlin,
1898),
xviii.,
no.
13,
pp.
Burkitt (F. C.), The Hymn of Bardaisan. Printed at
the Press of the Guild of Handicraft, Essex House
(London, 1899)
Bonnet
copies only printed.
3
Le Poeme
Version grecque remaniee par Nicetas
de Thessalonique. Extrait des Analecta Bollande
(M.), Actes de Saint Thomas, Apotre.
Ame.
I
diana (Bruxelles, 1901), tome xx. pp. 159
164.
Bonnet
(M.), Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha (edd. Lipsius
et Bonnet), vol. ii., pt. ii. (Leipzig, 1903), pp. xxii.,
219
ff.
Hoffman
"
(G.),
Zeitschrift
Zwei Hymnen der
fur
Thomasakten,"
neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
die
(Giessen, 1903), vol.
Preuschen
(E.),
Zwei
iv.
pp. 273
gnostische
294.
Hymnen
(Giessen,
1904).
Burkitt
(F.
Tijdschrift
F.
= Mead
H.
= Mead
Rev. of Preuschen, Theologisch
(Amsterdam), May, 1905, pp. 270 282.
C.),
(G. R. S.), Fragments of a Faith Forgotten
(2nd. ed., London, 1906)
(G. R.
(London, 1906).
S.),
Thrice
Greatest
Hermes
THE HYMN OF THE
ROBE OF GLORY.
PREAMBLE.
The
Gnostic
original
Poem
of
title
has been
this
lost,
and
beautiful
it is
now
generally referred to as The Hymn of the
Soul.
Preuschen, however, calls it The
Song of Deliverance (Das Lied von der
while in my Fragments (1900)
ventured to name it The Hymn of the
Robe of Glory. I here, also, prefer to
retain this title, as it seems the more
Erlosung)
;
I
appropriate.
original text of the Poem is in Old
Syriac, in lines of twelve syllables with a
casura, and so in couplets, for the
The
most part
of a Greek
of
six
version
syllables.
has
A
text
recently been
THE
discovered by Bonnet at Rome (C. ValliTHE ROBE cenanus B. 35) and published in his text
OF GLORY, of The Acts of Thomas (1903). It is
partly literal, partly paraphrastic, with
occasional doublets and omissions of whole
lines.
In addition there is a summary in
Greek by a certain Nicetas, Archbishop of
Thessalonica, who flourished prior to the
Xlth century (the date of the MS. in which
his
abridgment
is
but who is
This seems to be
found),
otherwise unknown.
based on another Greek version.
The copy
of the original Syriac text
found in a single MS. only (Brit.
Mus. Add. 14645), which contains a col
lection of Lives of Saints, and bears the
Our Poem is found
precise date 936 A.D.
in the text of the Syriac translation from
the Greek of The Acts of Judas Thomas
the Apostle ; it has, however, evidently
nothing to do with the original Greek
is
text of these Acts, and its style and
contents are quite foreign to the rest of
the matter. It is manifestly an inde
pendent document incorporated by the
10
Syrian redactor, who introduces it in the
OF
usual naive fashion of such compilations.
THE ROBE
GLORY,
Judas Thomas on his travels in India OF
There he offers up
is cast into prison.
a prayer. On its conclusion we read
:
And when he had prayed and sat
down, Judas began to chant this hymn
The Hymn of Judas Thomas the Apostle
in the Country of the Indians."
After the Poem comes the subscription
"
:
:
Judas Thomas the
Apostle, which he spake in prison, is
"
The
Hymn
of
ended."
This literary phenomenon is precisely
similar to that presented by The Hymn
of Jesus (Vol. V.), to the introduction of
which the reader
is
referred for a brief
consideration of the nature of the Gnostic
Acts.
Our Hymn is indubitably Gnostic but
what school or tradition ? Learned
;
of
opinion is preponderatingly in favour of
attributing it to the Syrian Gnostic
Bardesanes 154 122
Bardaisan
(Gk.
ii
AD
HYMN OF
THE ROBE an ist
or
-
OF GLORY.
ly>
poet.
392-414).
This
Poem
to some BardesP rec i se
(For Bardesanes, see F. pp.
* ess
>
)>
is
borne out by the text of the
which the mention of the
itself, in
Parthians (380) as the ruling race is
decidedly in favour of its having been
written prior to the overthrow of the
Parthian dynasty in 224 A.D.
There are also other indications point
not only
ing to Bardaisan as the poet
are some of the leading doctrines pecu
liarly those of this distinguished teacher,
as has been pointed out by Bevan and
;
Preuschen, but also, as I have ventured
suggest, there is a certain personal
note in the Poem.
Bardaisan s parents were rich and
noble
and their young son not only re
ceived the best education in manners
and learning procurable, but he was
brought up at the court of Edessa with the
crown prince, who afterwards succeeded
Not
to the throne as one of the Abgars.
but
Bardaisan
so,
subsequently
only
to
;
12
converted his friend and patron to Gnostic THE
I
Christianity, and induced him to make x
ROBE
it the state-religion
so that our Gnostic OF GLORY.
must have the credit indirectly of estab
lishing the first Christian State.
The description of the trade-route
from Parthia to Egypt and of the adven
tures of the hero in Egypt, moreover,
has led me to ask whether a real piece
of personal biography may not have been
woven into the Poem. May there not
be in it a lost page from the occult life
of Bardaisan himself ?
Filled with longing to penetrate the
mysteries of the Gnosis, he joins a caravan
to Egypt, and arrives at Alexandria.
There he meets with a fellow-countryman
on the same quest as himself, who gives
him some useful hints about the many
;
corrupt and charlatanesque schools of
pseudo-gnosis that thrived in that centre
of
intellectual
curiosity
and
religious
enthusiasm. He, however, in spite of
these warnings, seems to have fallen into
the hands of the unscrupulous, and so,
13
a ^
the
f r g ets his true spiritual quest,
by-ways, perchance, of lower
OF GLORY, psychism and magic. Only after this
bitter experience does he obtain the
instruction he longs for, by initiation
into the spiritual Gnosis of the inner
circles of, it may have been, the Valen-
HYMN OF
THE ROBE
* or
m
me>
tinian tradition.
Of course this speculation
ward with all hesitation but
;
is
put for
it is
neither
impossible, nor improbable.
In any case, it is the least important
element, and need not detain us except
as being a possible source of the local
colouring matter. The Hymn itself is
a truly poetic inspiration, and deals
with far higher mysteries and experi
But before we can venture to
ences.
an interpretation, the reader
suggest
must be made acquainted with the Poem
itself in a version based on a minute com
parison of
all
the existing translations.
THE HYMN.
I.
When, a quite
In the House
little
of
child,
my
I was dwelling
s Kingdom,
Father
And in the wealth and the glories
Of my Up-bringers I was delighting,
From
the East, our Home, my Parents
Forth-sent me with journey-provision.
Indeed from the wealth of our Treasure,
They bound up for me a load.
Large was it, yet was it so
That all alone I could bear
light
it.
II.
Gold from the Land of Glldn,
Silver
from Ganzak
the Great,
15
6
7 Chalcedonies of India,
Iris-hued [Opals ?] from Kushdn.
8
They girt me with Adamant [also]
That hath power to cut even iron.
9
My
Glorious Robe they took
Which in
10
And my
their love they
off
me
had wrought me,
Purple Mantle [also]
to match with
Which was woven
my
stature.
III.
11
And
with
In my
12
"
"
13
"
[then]
it,
made a compact;
not to forget
it :
// thou goest down into Egypt,
And thence thou bring* st the one Pearl
lies in the Sea,
by the loud-breathing Serpent,
[The Pearl] that
Hard
14
me They
heart wrote
[Then] shalt Thou put on thy Robe
And
thy Mantle that goeth
16
upon
it,
"
And
with thy Brother, Our Second,
Shalt thou be Heir in our Kingdom."
15
IV.
/ left the East and went down
With two Couriers [with me] ;
16
For the way was hard and dangerous,
For I was young to tread it.
I traversed the borders of Maishdn,
The mart of the Eastern merchants,
And I reached the Land of Babel,
And entered the watts of Sarbug.
17
18
19
Down further I went into Egypt
And from me parted my escorts.
;
20
V.
Straightway I went
Near
B
to his
to the
lodging I
17
Serpent
settled,
;
21
22
To
take
away my Pearl
sleep and should slumber.
While he should
23
Lone was I
To my
there, yea, all lonely ;
fellow-lodgers a stranger.
24 However I saw
From
there a noble,
out of the
Dawn-land
my
kinsman,
A young man fair and well favoured,
26 Son of Grandees; he came and he joined me.
25
VI.
27 / made him
A
28
chosen companion,
comrade, for sharing my wares with.
my
He warned me
against the Egyptians,
Gainst mixing with the unclean ones.
29 For I had clothed me as they were,
That they might not guess I had come
30
From
And
afar to take off the Pearl,
so rouse the Serpent against me.
18
VII.
But from some occasion
They learned I was not
With
or other
31
of their country.
their wiles they made
acquaintance;
me their victuals to eat.
my
32
Yea, they gave
I forgot that I was a King s son,
became a slave to their king.
33
And
I forgot
all
concerning the Pearl
For which my Parents had
And from
sent
me
34
;
the weight of their victuals
/ sank down into a deep
35
sleep.
VIII.
All this that now was befalling,
Parents perceived and were anxious.
36
was then proclaimed in our Kingdom,
That all should speed to our Gate
37
My
It
19
38
39
Kings and Chieftains
of the
And
this is the counsel they
East
I should not be
40
of Parthia,
And
And
And
for
to
all the
left
Princes.
came
to
down in Egypt.
me
it
they wrote out a Letter ;
each Noble his Name set
IX.
"
41
From Us
And
42
"And
To
"
43
"
of
Kings, thy Father,
Queen
of the
Dawn-land,
from Our Second, thy Brother
Son, down in Egypt,
Our Greeting !
thee,
Up and
Give ear
44
King
thy Mother,
arise
Remember
See
from thy sleep,
words of Our Letter
to the
that thou art
a King
s
!
son
;
whom thou hast served in thy slavedom.
20
Bethink thyself of the Pearl
For which thou didst journey
45
to
Egypt.
X.
"
"
Remember thy Glorious Robe,
Thy Splendid Mantle remember
To put on and wear
When
the
thy
46
,
as adornment,
be read in
47
Name may
Book
of the Heroes,
with Our Successor, thy
Thou mayest be Heir in Our
"And
Brother,
My
Letter was [surely ] a Letter
The King had sealed up with His
Right Hand,
Gainst the Children of Babel, the wicked,
of Sarbug.
The tyrannical Daimons
21
48
Kingdom"
49
o
XL
51
52
// flew in the form of the Eagle,
Of all the winged tribes the king-bird
;
and alighted beside me,
turned into speech altogether.
It flew
And
53
At
54
Unto me I took it and kissed it
I loosed its seal and I read it.
55
E en
its voice and the sound of its winging,
I waked and arose from my deep sleep.
as
it
The words
stood in
of
my
my
;
heart writ,
Letter were written.
XII.
56 / remembered that I was a Kings son,
And my rank did long for its nature.
57 / bethought me again of the Pearl,
For which I was sent down to Egypt.
22
And
I began [then]
The
terrible loud-breathing Serpent.
I
lulled
him
Chanting
to
and
to sleep
him
o er
charm him,
the
to
Name
58
slumber,
59
of my Father,
60
our Second, [my Brother],
of
my Mother, the East-
The Name of
And [Name]
Queen.
XIII.
And
And
[thereon]
turned
Their
To
To
On
My
the
House
of
my
61
Father.
and unclean garments
and left in their country.
filthy
I stripped
I snatched up the Pearl,
to the
62
off
way
that
I came I betook me,
63
Home, to the Dawn-land.
the Light of our
the
road I found [there] before
had aroused me
me
64
Letter that
^4s with its voice it
So now with
had roused me,
its light it
23
did lead
me
65
XIV.
66
On
fabric of silk, in letters of red
With shining appearance
before
[?],
me
[?],
67 Encouraging me with its guidance,
With its love it was drawing me onward.
69 / went forth ; through Sarbug I passed
I left Babel-land on my left hand ;
70
And I
reached unto
The meeting-place
71
That
lieth
Maishdn
;
the Great,
of the merchants,
hard by the Sea-shore.
XV,
72
My
Glorious Robe that Fd stripped off,
with which it was covered,
And my Mantle
73
Down from
Thither my
the Heights of Hyrcdnia,
Parents did send me,
24
By the hands of their Treasure-dispensers
Who trustworthy were with it trusted.
74
Without
75
In
my
recalling its fashion,
House of
had left it,
the
At once, as soon
The Glory looked
my
Father
saw
as I
like
my
childhood
76
it,
my own
self.
XVI.
I saw
it all
in all of me,
all in [all of]
And saw me
77
it,
That we were twain in
And
distinction,
yet again one in one likeness.
I saw,
Who
too, the
unto
Treasurers also,
me had down-brought
79
it,
Were twain [and yet] of one likeness ;
For one Sign of the King was upon them
25
78
80
81
Who
through them restored
The Pledge
of
my
me
Kingship
the Glory,
[?].
XVII.
82
The Glorious Robe all-bespangled
With sparkling splendour of colours
83
With Gold and also with Beryls,
Chalcedonies, iris-hued [Opals ?],
84
With Sards of varying colours.
To match its grandeur [?], moreover,
it had been completed :
85
With adamantine
All of
its
86 [Moreover}
Was
87
And
Was
jewels
seams were
the
King
off -fastened.
of
Kings Image
depicted entirely all o er
it ;
as with Sapphires above
wrought in a motley of colour.
it
26
;
XVIII.
/ saw that moreover all o er it
The motions of Gnosis abounding
further
was making
Ready as though
for to speak.
I saw
it
I heard
Which
the
it
sound
of its
whispered as
88
;
89
Music
it
descended
90
[?]
:
him the active in deeds I
For whom I was reared with my Father
"Behold
"7
91
;
too have felt in myself
92
How that with his works waxed my stature"
XIX.
And
Was
[now] with its Kingly motions
pouring itself out towards me,
93
it
And made
haste in the hands of its Givers, 94
That I might [take and] receive it.
27
95
And
me,
To run
96
And I
With
97
too,
my
love urged
for to meet
it,
forward
to take
it.
stretched myself forth to receive
its
it ;
beauty of colour I decked me,
And my Mantle of sparkling colours
I wrapped entirely all
me.
o"*er
XX.
98 / clothed me therewith, and ascended
To
the Gate of Greeting
99 / bowed
To
100
head and did homage
the Glory of
Him who
had
sent
it,
Whose commands I [now ] had accomplished,
And who
101
my
and Homage.
had, too, done what
He d promised.
[And there] at the Gate of His House-sons
I mingled myself with His Princes ;
28
For He had received me with gladness,
And I was with Him in His Kingdom ;
102
XXI.
To whom the whole of His Servants
With sweet- sounding voices sing praises.
103
He had
Of
the
And
promised that with him to the Court 104
King of Kings I should speed,
taking with
me my
Pearl
Should with him be seen by our King.
105
COMMENTS.
HYMN OF
THE PEARL.
B th Hoffmann
and Preuschen are
THE ROBE opinion that the Poem
of
a free elaboration
OF GLORY, of the chief element in the very briefly
recorded Parable of the Pearl which the
first
has preserved
Evangelist alone
(Matt.
xiii.
45, 46)
is
:
"
Again the Kingdom [or Kingship] of
the Heavens is like unto a merchantman
and when he found
seeking fine pearls
a pearl of great price, he went and sold
all he had and
bought
This seems hardly sufficient in itself
to account for the genesis of our Poem.
;
it."
Certainly for the Gnostics,
meant the Kingdom
if
the Pearl
Heaven in the
sense of the Gnosis, it also meant some
thing more definite and intimate, and in
30
of
probability the tradition of the mystic
i
4.*
meaning went back to pre-Christian
all
*
i
-L
/"!_
days.
Thus the pre-Christian Hellenistic ini
commentator
first
tiate who was the
Naassene
the
of
Document, quotes a
? from
mystery-saying of the Phrygians
the Mysteries of the Great Mother as
follows
"If
made
:
ye have eaten dead things and
living ones, what will ye make if
"
ye eat living things ?
On this the Jewish commentator, who
was in high probability a contemporary
let us say about
of Philo of Alexandria
the
first
writes
"
quarter of the
first
century
:
And by
living things
and minds and men
logoi
of the
Man
Inexpressible
plasm below."
Those logoi, or
"
they mean
the
pearls
cast into the
"
words or reasons
men
minds or true
"
"
"
"
that is spiritual
who perpetually
are the
angels
behold the Face of the Father, that is
"
"
THE
JtixjyiJN
ur
1
THE ROBE
OF GLORY
^ e ^^ne
P resence The Inexthe
Transcendent Logos,
THE ROBE Possible
OF GLORY, and the logoi are His sons. In brief the
Pearl is the
Higher Self."
Later on, in the same Document, the
Christian Gnostic writer, who further
comments on the interpretation of the
HYMN OF
^ ve * n
Man
-
is
"
Jewish exegete, adds
"
That
is
:
what He
saith
:
"
Cast not the holy thing to the dogs
nor the pearls to the swine.
And on this finally the Church Father
Hippolytus remarks
For they say that the work of swine
is the intercourse of man with woman."
:
"
i.
175).
It is to be
(H.
Oracles
term
(ii.
26
noted that in the Chaldaan
"
ff.)
"
dogs
for a certain class of
"
so also
swine
"
may
are a technical
"
daimones
"
;
for the Gnostics
have designated another class.
In any case we get the equation, pearl
= logos
"
that is, the
light-spark," the
Christ-nature in
the
the
of
Logos,
ray
man. And so also in The Acts of John
;
32
we read
the following, in a hymn of praise
into
the mouth of John, at the sacred
put
feast prior to his departure from the
body. It is addressed to the Christ, and
the sentence that concerns us runs
We glorify the Resurrection shown
we glorify Thy
unto us through Thee
:
"
;
Seed,
Word
True Pearl
Grace, Faith, Salt,
(Logos),
ineffable."
(F. p. 440).
thus evident that the Pearl is in
some way the mystery hidden in man, and,
For "Egypt"
indeed, buried in the body.
is the body.
It is
EGYPT.
Thus in the same invaluable Naassene
Document, the Jewish commentator,
quoting from some still more ancient
commentary, writes
"This is what is written:
I have said, Ye are Gods and all
:
"
Sons of the Highest
if ye hasten to
flee from Egypt and get you beyond the
Red Sea into the Desert."
c
33
THE RQBE
OF GLORY.
to this he himself adds in further
explanat ion
That is, from the Intercourse Below
OF GLORY:
who is the
the
to
Jerusalem Above
And
THE
OF
:
"
Mother
of the
Living."
he resumes his quotation
from presumably some old Jewish Gnostic
And
then
commentary
"But
(that
is,
:
ye turn back into Egypt
if
to the Intercourse Below)
shall die like men.
And on this he again
"
is
For
all
remarks
Ye
:
the Generation (Genesis) Below
to Death, but the [Birth] be
subject
Above is superior to Death."
gotten
3
Ocean of
And, speaking of the Great
continues
he
Genesis,
the Great Jordan, which,
is
"This
and preventing the
downwards
flowing
of
from
going forth out
Sons of Israel
Below, was
Intercourse
the
or
Egypt,
turned back by Jesus [LXX. for Joshua]
and made to flow upwards."
After "Egypt" the Church Father
interjects the gloss
:
:
Hippolytus
34
"
For Egypt
Me
them."
(tf.
,
i.
-I
is
the body, according to THE
163, 164).
r*
i
11
.
N
?HE
1MJ6 ROBE
KUrJii
.
ot this Gnostic
allegorizing is, in OF GLORY.
high probability, to be assigned to preChristian Chassid and allied
(e.g. Thera-
peut)
circles,
similar
to
those
which
developed the ethical teaching of The
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, which
Prof. Charles has, in his
just published
text and translation, so
brilliantly conjec
tured to have been written about
106
109
This ethic, he contends, influenced
very strongly the writers of the New Testa
B.C.
ment documents, and anticipated some
of
the most characteristic Sayings of
Jesus.
How the symbolism of Egypt, the Red
Sea, the Desert, and the Promised Land,
was developed by these Mystics
may
be seen from what Hippolytus (Ref. vi.
16) summarizes of the system of the
Peratae or Transcendalists, who were
contemporaries of the Naassenes.
The Gnostic treatise that the Church
^
Father had before him, was treating of the
Great Water or Ocean of Genesis that
35
THE
moistens the soul and plunges it into the
THJ^ROBE Region of Death, according to the word
OF GLORY
of Heraclitus
"
:
For to souls water becomes
The
death."
Peratic writer continues
This Death overtakes the Egyptians
in the Red Sea together with their chariots
Now all who are ignorant
[set. vehicles].
the Gnosis] are Egyp
without
are
[set.
:
"
tians."
Hippolytus then summarizes as follows
And this, they say, is the Going-forth
out of Egypt out of the body. For they
consider that the body is a little Egypt,
and that they cross over [or transcend
hence their name Peratse] the Red Sea
(that is, the Water of Destruction, which
:
"
Kronos [that is, Time]), and reach a
beyond the Red Sea (that is, Gene
ration), and enter the Desert (that is,
reach a state free from Generation),
where there are all together the Gods of
Destruction and the God of Salvation."
is
state
And
"
the Peratic writer adds
the Gods of Destruction are the
:
Now
36
Stars [that
is,
the
Fate-spheres]
which THE
bring upon sentient beings the necessity THE
of changeable Generation [Genesis, the OF GLORY.
Brahmanical and Buddhist Samsdra].
These Moses called the Serpents of
"
the Desert
who
Red
"
who
imagine
bite
they
and destroy those
have crossed the
Sea.
To the Sons
of Israel, therefore,
who
were being bitten in the Desert, Moses
revealed the True Serpent [sci. of Wisdom],
the Perfect One
and they who believed
on Him, were not bitten in the Desert
;
(that
is,
by the Powers).
one, therefore, is thus able to save
deliver those who come forth from
"No
and
the
and
Land
of
from
Egypt
the
Perfect Serpent,
(that
world),
is,
from the body
save
Him who
only
is full
the
of [all]
fulnesses.
He who centres his hopes upon Him,
not destroyed by the Serpents of the
Desert (that is, by the Gods of Genera
"
is
tion)."
It is
thus evident that for these mystical
37
au e g
"
Egypt stood for both the
and
also
the hylic or gross-material
THE ROBE body
OF GLORY, realms, and that the use goes back along
HYMN OF
r i sts
the Naassene-Ophite trace to pre-Christian
Jewish Gnostic circles. It is, therefore,
unnecessary to bring forward later pas
sages from Clement of Alexandria and
Origen in confirmation of the use.
THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL.
That our Poem is simply an elaboration
or embellishment (Ausschmuckung
Preuschen, p. 66) of the briefly-recorded
Parable of the Pearl, as has been supposed,
a very
insufficient
hypothesis to
account for its genesis. Even if we were
is
so inelastic as to imagine that it must
necessarily have its point of departure
in canonical scripture, we might more
appropriately surmise that it is rather
of the beautiful Parable
of the Prodigal, which is recorded by the
third Evangelist alone (Lk. xv. 11-32).
That, however, it is something far
other than a mere embellishment even
an elaboration
38
of this beautiful Parable, must
to the most casual reader.
be evident
There is THE ROBE
OF GLORY.
resemblances
its
and
in
it,
originality
be
far
with
greater probability,
may,
referred to
knowledge of the inner facts
that both Parable and Poem set forth,
rather than to any slavish following of
Still it is well to
the canonical text.
remark the resemblances
The Father and the two Sons, of whom
the dividing
the younger goes forth
up of the substance (ova-la) or living
the joining
the far country
(,8/o?)
himself to a citizen of that country the
the eating the
reverse in the Poem
:
;
;
;
;
food
of
swine
the symbol
of
genera
the calling to remembrance of the
the
the return
Father s household
running of the Father to meet him, as he
speeds to meet the Father, and the
kissing of him the putting on of the robe.
It is, however, evident that the whole
tion
;
;
;
;
treated from another standpoint
more intimate and reveals a
fuller insight into the spiritual mysteries.
matter
it
is
is
;
far
39
In the Parable there
HYMN OF
is
no mention
of
THE ROBE the Divine Mother, the Queen of the
OF GLORY. East and this is in keeping with later
Rabbinical exclusion of the Divine Femi
nine.
But in the circles of the Mystics
the Holy Spirit was regarded as feminine,
the Spouse of Divinity, and in the Wisdom;
literature
As
Wisdom
herself.
the
other great traditions, so
also in pre-Christian Jewish Gnostic circles,
the natural Trinity was a fundamental
of their symbolism, and so also in many
a system of the Christianized Gnosis.
The origin of the Dual Sonship, how
in
ever, must, in one direction at any rate,
be sought for along that very obscure
line of descent
that is called Ophite
and
which
has its roots in
(Naassene),
the pre-Christian Gnosis and the wide
spread
Myth
of
Man
(see
THE DUAL SONSHIP.
A faint trace of this
H.
is
i.
139-198).
preserved for
system which the polemical
Refutation (I. xxx) of Irenaeus associates
us
in
a
40
with the Ophite tradition, but which THE
Theodoret (Hcer. Fab. I. xiv.) ascribes TH R BE
the OF GLORY.
Sethians.
to the
Unfortunately
is here
Irenaeus
of
text
Greek
original
lost, and we have to be content with the
barbarous Old-Latin translation in addi
tion the Church Father is very hostile
;
and contemptuous, and at no great pains
to understand the objects of his detesta
Such as it is, however, we will
tion.
set it
down
:
But
others again give forth por
that there dwells
tentous utterances
in the Power of the Depth a certain
"
:
Primal Light, blessed, indestructible,
this is the Father of all and
boundless
is called the First Man.
They declare further that His Thought
proceeding from Him, is the Son of Him
and
who sends forth [His Thought]
that this Thought is Son of Man, the
;
"
;
Second Man.
That below these again is the Holy
and below this Highest Spirit,
Spirit
the [Primal] Elements were separated
"
;
THE
forth
Water, Darkness, Abyss, Chaos
THE^OBE and on these was borne the
Spirit,
;
whom
call the First Woman.
Subsequently, they assert, the First
Man together with His Son, delighting in
the Beauty of the Spirit, that is the
Woman, and filling Her with Light,
begat from Her Incorruptible Light, the
Third Man, whom they call the Christ,
Son of the First and the Second Man
and of the Holy Spirit, the First
OF GLORY, they
"
Woman."
Here we have clearly set forth the idea
the Dual Sonship though from a
different point of view from that of our
Poem and of Man, Son of Man, a term
of
frequently in the Gospels,
far scholarship refuses to
explain gnostically, preferring to lose
itself in the philological labyrinth of a
that
occurs
and which so
quite unsatisfactory Aramaic Bar-Nasha.
That the ruling idea of the Dual
Sonship was widespread in Gnostic circles,
both non-Christian and Christianized, may
be seen from the following parallels,
42
though where we are to seek the proto^ OF
type of it whether along some single THE ROBE
line of Babylonian, Chaldaean, Magian, OF GLORY.
Syrian or Egyptian mystagogy, or as a
common possession of Chaldaea and Egypt
is hard to say.
i. In the Mago-Chaldaean system under
lying the early Simonian document
The Great Announcement (see The
Gnostic Crucifixion, pp. 40
The
Power
f
of
f
J
the Depth
_
_.
(
The Father, Mind
of
the Universals.
Man Son
Man
of
First
Woman,Holy
Spirit
:
:
The First
The
ff.)
The Great Power,
i ncomp rehensible
~
,
Great Thou ht
,
,
,
-
^
u TV/T-JJI T^The
Middle Distance,
Incomprehensible
or
Breath
He who
The
Christ
=
stands,
stand.
43
has stood,
and
will
THE
HYMN OF
2.
THE ROBE
OF GLORY.
In the system underlying the Chaldaean
Oracles, a Greek mystery-poem of the
first
The
Power
the Depth
"
is
of
=
Man Son
of)
Man, The!Second Man]
First
Woman
The
Christ
)
philosophized
":
God-nurturing
f
Silence.
=
(
The First Man =
The
which Mago-Chal-
century in
daean material
The Father
f
>
Mind
>
Fire.
=
Mind of Mind,
The Second Mind.
=
The Great Mother.
=
The JEon (as Monad,
Atom, Light-
J
spark, Symbol).
3
Again
in
the system underlying the
oldest extant treatise of the Trisme-
The Pcemandres
or
Man-Shepherd
(H. ii. 3 ff.)
The Power of The Silence before
the Depth =
the Voice.
"
"
gistic literature,
"
"
:
f
|
44
The First Man =
Man Son of
Man
The
f
HYMN OF
THE ROBE
Formative Mind,
The Second Mind. OF GLORY
-
:
I
First
)
=
Woman
~,
All-Father Mind.
~.
.
XT
Nature
,
f
,
"
}
;
1
Man, Brother of the
Formative Mind.
doubt that in
little
both pre-Christian and
Christian, there was a clear tradition of
Two Sons, one who remained, and one
who went forth and the one who went
There
Gnostic
is
thus
circles,
;
Our
forth or returned was the Christ.
Poem is therefore a Song of the ChristMystery.
Brother, Our Second," or Nextthe Supernal Man, Son of
Man
and the Christ, because of His
Descent, and His winning of the Pearl
of Self-consciousness in manifestation,
is exalted to
equality with the Supernal
Son, or even to still higher rank
yet
are they both one.
"
Thy
in-rank,
is
;
;
45
THE
THE ROBE
THE ROBE OF GLORY.
^
is
to be noted that there are
two
the Robe of Glory and the
Mantle.
Purple
Now in the canonical scriptures John
xix. 24 (cf. Matth. xxvii. 35, Mk. xv. 24,
Lk. xxiii. 24, all of which look back to
Psalm xx. 18) reads
OF GLORY. Vestures
:
:
"
my
They parted
them
Garments among
;
"
And
for
my
Vesture they cast
The fourth Gospel
the
(xix. 23) distinguishes
and the
"Garments"
lots."
"
Coat
adding that the
without seam, woven
"Vesture,"
"
"
(chiton)
from
the
was
top
throughout."
Now
or tunica, was an
and
was
under-garment,
generally worn
the
chiton,
under a woollen cloak, or mantle (chlamys,
or toga) during the day.
The writer of the fourth Gospel was a
Mystic, and doubtless meant to convey
an under-meaning to those who had
to hear."
"ears
46
As
were divided
the
four soldiers," can THE RQBE
it be that he intended to convey the idea OF GLORY,
of a Cloak of the four elements, and a
Vesture of the one element, or quin
tessence, the complement of the four ?
the
At any
with
"Garments"
"
into four
among
rate
the
this
in
keeping
concerning
mystery-teaching
"
"
the
would be
perfect
as
rection,"
or
body
be
may
"
body
of resur
from
seen
the
Mithriac Ritual.
Whether
or
he
not
had
any such
intention, and whether or not he had
further the same ground-ideas in mind
as those set forth by the Gnostic poet in
our beautiful Hymn, must be left to the
opinion of the reader according to his
knowledge or ignorance.
The difference between the under
garment and mantle may be seen in
while in
many a Mithriac monument
the Mithriac Ritual we read (p. 27)
Thou shalt behold a God.
in
a White Tunic and a Scarlet Mantle."
;
:
4
.
And
again
(p. 32)
:
47
.
THE
"
N
Thou
THE ROBE
clad in a
OF GLORY.
The
"
parallel
...
shalt see
Robe
of
God
...
Brightness."
Mantle
Scarlet
a
with the
"
"Purple
is
an
exact
Mantle"
of
our Poem.
The nature of the Divine Robe, or,
Glory, as a Heavenly Dwelling, was
understood by Paul when he writes
Cor. v. i
(/.
"
ff.)
:
For know that
if
our house on earth
of the [fleshly] tabernacle be dissolved,
we have a God-made Building, a House
not made with hands, eternal [lit. aeonian]
in the Heavens.
For, indeed, we are groaning in this
[habitation on earth],
longing to be
"
with our Heaven-made Habita
clothed
tion."
Paul was well versed in Gnostic nomen
and the extended meaning of
the Robe of Glory, as it was understood
by the Mystics, may be grasped by
clature
;
the present-day Mystic who reads the
following passages from one of the in
spired outbursts of the beautiful Untitled
48
Apocalypse of the Coptic Gnostic Codex THE
N
Brucianus
?HE ROBE
In this City it is that they move OF GLORY,
and live
it is the House of the
Father,
and the Vesture of the Son, and the
Power of the Mother, and the Image of
the Fulness [Pleroma]." (F. p. 547).
:
"
;
And again
And they
:
"
praised the
One and Only
One, and Conception [or Thought, the
Mother], and the Mind-born Logos, prais
ing the Three who are One, for through
Him they became supersubstantial.
And the Father took their whole
"
Likeness and made it into a City or into
a Man. He limned the Universe in His
Man s] Likeness that is all
[sci. the
these Powers.
them knew Him in this
to
City
began
sing myriads of songs
of praise to the Man or the City of the
Father of the universe.
"
Each one
;
"
of
all
And
the Father hath taken His
Glory and made it into a Vesture without
for the Man.
He created His
D
49
^
THE
HYMN OF
Body
,77
THE ROBE (?
OF GLORY.
in the type of the
:
_,
P-
And
AA
Holy
Pleroma."
v
5Wyet again the Ineffable Vesture
sung of as follows
is
:
Monad hath
Him
an
and
Light
all Life, and all Resurrection, and all
Love, and all Hope, and all Faith, and all
Wisdom, and all Gnosis, and all Truth,
and all Peace.
And in it is the universe, and the
universe hath found itself in it, and
knows itself therein.
And it [sci. the Vesture] gave them
"
The
First
Ineffable Vesture,
.
which
.
sent
is all
.
"
"
all light in its
of
myriads
order that
once for
it
of
Ineffable Light
myriads
powers were given it, in
should raise up the universe
all.
"
It
;
gathered
its
vestures
to
itself,
and made them after the fashion of a
Veil which surrounds it on all sides, and
poured itself over them, and raised up
all, and separated them all according to
order and law and forethought."
(F.
P-
557-)
50
And yet once more from the same T HE
high document of deep mystic lore
THE^OBE
"He
is the
Man begotten of Mind, OF GLORY,
to whom Reflection gave form.
Thou hast given all things to the
:
"
Man. He weareth them like these gar
ments, and putteth them on like these
vestures, and wrappeth Himself with
creation as with a mantle."
(F. p. 562.)
If we were to set down all the
passages
in Gnostic and allied literature connected
with the mystery of the Robe of Glory,
the Wedding Garment, and the rest of
the Light- Vestures of the Soul, we should
speedily exhaust the space of this little
volume and of several other volumes.
We must, however, find room for a
brief notice of the magnificent
description
of the Descent of the Vesture of
Light
on the Master, the Gnostic Transfigura
tion, in the Pistis Sophia (PS. 5 ff.
F. pp. 259 ff.).
The whole subject is
treated more fully in my essay on
The
Soul- Vestures,"
in The
;
"
World-Mystery
(2nd
ed., pp.
117
ff.)
:
"
HYMN OF
^6
^ Ut
THE ROBE because
saw n
-Di sc ipl es
t
JeSUS
He
which
of the Great Light in
OF GLORY, was, or which shone on Him
for their
eyes were darkened because of the Great
Light in which He was. They saw the
;
Light only, sending forth a host of lightrays.
"
And
the light-rays were not like to
The Light was of various
and it was of various types,
one another.
kinds,
from below above, each ray being more
admirable than its fellow
in a
Great Glory of immeasurable Light
it
stretched from below the Earth right up
unto Heaven.
It was of three degrees.
The first
was more admirable than the rest [? of
the rays]
the second, which was in the
midst, was more admirable than the first
which was below it
and the third,
which was above them all, was more
admirable than the two below
The Master explains this mystery to
.
.
.
;
.
.
.
"
;
;
it."
His Disciples as follows
Lo, I have now put on
:
"
52
my
Vesture,
all authority hath been
given me by
N
the First Mystery.
?HE
f
It came to pass, when the Sun had OF GLORY.
risen in the East, that a Great Light-power
and
.
.
RoL
.
"
descended,
which
I
which was my Vesture,
behind in the Four-and-
in
had
left
twentieth Mystery.
"And I found a
Mystery in my Vesture,
written in Five Words of those from the
of which the interpre
Height
.
.
.
...
tation
is
this
:
Mystery that is Without, in the
World, because of which All hath come
into existence
This is the whole Out
and
the
whole
going
Up-going, which
hath emanated all Emanations and all
that is therein, because of which all Mys
teries exist and all their Regions.
Come -unto us
For we are Thy
Fellow-Members [or Limbs]
we are all
one with Thee
we are one and the
same. Thou art the First Mystery which
hath existed from the beginning in the
Ineffable before it came forth, and the
"O
!
"
!
;
;
Name
thereof
is all
of us.
53
"
HYMN OF
^ OWj
we
"therefore,
THE ROBE n igh unto Thee
all
together draw
at the Last Limit (that
OF GLORY, at the Last Mystery from Within)
;
it
is,
is
a portion of us.
itself
therefore, we have sent Thee
Vesture, which indeed hath belonged
to Thee from the beginning, which Thou
didst leave behind in the Last Limit,
which is the Last Mystery from Within,
"
Now,
Thy
until its time should be fulfilled, accord
ing to the Command of the First Mystery.
"
its
time
therewith
Thyself
Come unto us
Lo,
is
fulfilled
;
clothe
!
"
!
For we
all
draw
nigh unto Thee to clothe Thee with the
First Mystery and all His Glory, by
Commandment of the same in that the
First Mystery hath given us it, consisting
of two Vestures, besides the one that we
;
for Thou art worthy of
them for in sooth Thou art prior to us
and came into being before us. Where
have sent Thee,
;
now hath the First Mystery sent
Thee through us the Mystery of all His
Glory, two Vestures."
fore
54
The text then goes on to enumerate THE ^
the Hierarchies of ^Eons, Powers, and THE ROBE
Gods, which compose these Heavenly OF GLORY.
Garments corresponding detail for detail
^
with the whole emanative potencies of the
Universe whereby the Garment of Deity
is woven, and then continues its magni
the Living Powers
ficent exposition
which form the Vesture speaking as
Be with us
follows on the Great Day
;
"
"
"
moment
Supreme Perfection
Lo, therefore, have we sent Thee
the
Thy
of
:
Vesture, which no one from the First
[or Precept] downwards hath known
for the Glory of its Light was hidden in it
Law
[sci.
First
;
the Law], and
all
Regions from the
not known it.
Law downwards have
Make haste, therefore, clothe Thyself
with this Vesture, and come unto us
For we draw nigh unto Thee, in order
to clothe Thee with thy Two Vestures,
which have been for Thee from the
beginning with the First Mystery, until
the time appointed by the Ineffable
should be fulfilled.
"
!
55
Come therefore, to us quickly, that
THE ROBE we ma y clothe Thee with them, until
OF GLORY. Thou hast fulfilled the whole Ministry of
"
HYMN OF
the Perfection of the First Mystery, the
by the Ineffable
Come, therefore, to us quickly that
we may clothe Thee with them according
to the Commandment of the First Mystery
For yet a little while, a very little while,
and Thou shalt come to us and leave
the world.
Come, therefore, quickly, that Thou
mayest receive Thy whole Glory, the
Glory of the First Mystery
This gives us all the light we need to
throw on the inner meaning of our Poem
it is the inner tradition intended for the
Ministry appointed
!
"
!
"
"
!
;
initiated,
to
be
Poem was intended
among the people.
whereas our
circulated
Which was prior ? If the former, then
we have found a terminus for the dating,
if not of the Pistis Sophia as a whole, then
of one of its
and the date
sources,"
"
must be pushed back
century.
56
into
the second
A STORY OF THE INFANCY,
But before we leave the Pistis Sophia THE
there is another instructive passage that THE
is reminiscent of the same ideas which OF GLORY.
Unto me I took it
underlie the words
That
and also
and kissed it
(50)
"
:
"
"
;
we were twain
in
distinction,
:
And
yet
It is
again one in one likeness" (78).
an otherwise unknown Story of the In
fancy and runs as follows (P.S. pp.
120 ff.)
And Mary [the Mother] answered
:
"
and said
"
My
which
:
Master,
concerning
the
word
Thy Power prophesied through
Grace and Truth met
David, to wit
and Peace kissed
Righteousness
together,
Truth sprouted out of the
each other
Earth, and Righteousness looked down
from Heaven
Thy Power prophesied
this word of old concerning Thee.
When Thou wert a child, before the
Spirit had descended upon Thee, whilst
thou wert in a vineyard with Joseph,
:
;
"
the Spirit
came from the Height, and
57
mm
to me
y house, like unto Thee
an
I
d
knew
Him
not, and thought that
THE ROBE
OF GLORY. He was Thou.
And the Spirit said unto me Where
HYMN OF
came
;
"
:
is
Jesus
my
Brother, that
Him ?
And when He had
I
may
go to
meet
"
said
this
unto
was in perplexity and thought it
was a phantom [come] to tempt me.
"So
I took Him and bound Him to
the foot of the bed that was in my house,
until I had gone unto you
to Thee and
Joseph, in the field and found you in
the vineyard Joseph propping up the
I
me,
vines.
came to pass, therefore, when
didst hear me speaking the word
unto Joseph, that Thou didst under
stand the word, and wert joyful and
"
It
Thou
saidest
Him
?
:
Where
Otherwise
He
is
I
that I may see
await Him in this
place.
It came to pass when Joseph heard
Thee saying these words, that he was
troubled, and we went together, we entered
"
58
the house, and found the Spirit bound to
the bed. And we gazed on Thee and
N QF
THE ROBE
OF GLORY.
Him, and found Thee like unto Him.
And He that was bound to the bed
He embraced Thee and
was loosed
kissed Thee, and Thou also didst kiss
Him and ye become one."
"
;
;
am somewhat
persuaded that under
details
of this
naive
apparently
infancy story there is a concealed mean
Once I gave a lecture in which I
ing.
endeavoured to suggest what the nature
I
the
of
its
but
under-meaning
it is
may have
too long to set
down
apparently from another
of the P. S. document, and
to the compiler.
It is
THE TWO COURIERS.
The Two Couriers also
been,
here.
"
"
source
not due
pertain to the
mystery hidden under the symbolism
of the Twins which meets us everywhere
in the ancient myths and legends of
initiation
;
in
reversed
59
reflection
they
OF
would be the Two Thieves
crucified with
TJTHE ROBE nim
OF GLORY.
In the Transfiguration - scene in the
canonical Gospels, when the Master is
clothed with Light, the Two are taken
by the unknowing Disciples for Moses
and
Elias.
In The Gospel of Peter, in the
story of
the Mystery of the Resurrection,
they are
seen as Two Men, of the appearance of
whose heads reach unto heaven.
This mystic tradition may be compared
with the more prosaic
two men in shin
of the third Gospel
while
ing garments
its Gnostic
analogue may be seen in the
Two Great Beings reaching unto heaven,
of whom the precise
mystic dimensions
are given, in the Nazoraean, or Galilean,
Book of Elxai, that is
scripture, The
Light,
"
"
;
The Book
of the
Hidden Power
(see
Did
Jesus live 100 B.C. ? pp. 365 ff.).
In the Pistis Sophia, as Receivers of
Light, they are called Gabriel and Michael,
who led "the Light-stream over Pistis
the repentant
faithful
soul
Sophia
"
60
(PS. 130 ff.), and who elsewhere in the THE
same document take back the souls to THE
the Light. They lead
the Light-stream OF GLORY.
into Chaos and bring it forth again
"
"
(P.S. 133).
In the Book of Enoch (Ixxi. 3) it is
Michael who brings Enoch before the
most High, and Abraham to the Throne
of God.
The Two Angels of opposite
allegorizing or substantializing the
sex
man
s
good and evil deeds who lead the soul
through the Middle Distance are native
to the Magian and presumably Old Iranian
traditions.
In Hellenic mythology and Hellenistic
mystagogy it is Hermes who is the psychagogue and psychopomp, and he bears
in his hand a Rod twined about with the
Serpent Twins.
THE ALLEGORICAL GEOGRAPHY.
The geography of the way down from
Hyrcania to Egypt, and back again, is
61
o
THE ROBE
OF GLORY.
consistent with itself (18-20, 69-71), but
puzzling in some of its details.
Hyrcania was the mountainous region
on the southern shores of the Caspian
Sea.
The territory of Maishan lay between
Maishan the
Mesopotamia and the sea
city (Forat Maishan = ? Messene) was
;
in all probability the chief
emporium
of
sea-borne commerce of Babylonia
and the West with India, and lay
slightly to the south of the present-day
Basra.
Babylonia was the Tigris-Euphrates
the
valley.
Sarbug is a puzzle,. The best solution
seems to be that it stands for the City
of
Now, strangely
Babylon itself.
enough, the Greek, in both traditions,
renders Sarbug by the
Labyrinth."
"
This may possibly refer to the labyrinth
of the streets of the great city.
But it
also
for
us
a
hint
of
how
may
preserve
the geography was allegorized by the
Gnostic exegetes
for
The Labyrinth
"
;
62
"
was a technical term of the Gnosis, as
N QF
may be seen from a fine Naassene Hymn, THE RQBE
two lines of which, referring to the soul, OF GLORY,
run as follows
"
:
Now is born,
in
with no
enters
Labyrinth
Whatever
it
been,
out for her
;
misery
She
otherwise
way
in
of
her
ills."
wandering
(H.
i.
the
191).
the precise situation of the
unknown Sarbug
may have
must be very patent to the
Mystic that the Gnostic poet intended
for a certain stage of the descent of
the soul, or spiritual mind, into the
it
regions of manifestation.
Hoffmann
(pp.
289
ff.)
has attempted
The
interpretation on these lines.
from
he
leads
the
of
Soul,
(i)
says,
Way
Heaven as the God-realm, through (2)
to (3) the Earth
the Firmament,
corresponding with the three natures of
an
man
:
spirit,
soul,
and body.
63
THE
HYTVTM
OF
THE ROBE
He
further sets forth a diagrammatic
representation as follows
:
OF GLORY.
N=The
Region of the Ineffable, the
Mountain of the Gods, Hyrcania.
This
E =The
is
the Over- world or Pleroma.
Heaven
.Ether,
Light
the
of
the
Midst,
Fixed
the
Stars,
of
Virgin
(of P.S.).
Between this and the Earth comes
the Boundary of the Over-world
and the World ( =S), or Maishan.
64
Next comes the Earth-heaven or THE
N
Firmament, Babel.
?
ROBE
=Egypt, the Earth and the Under- OF GLORY.
W
world.
This seems to me a somewhat too
elaborate scheme
but if it can stand, it
strengthens the case for priority of the
scheme underlying the Pistis Sophia to
;
our Poem.
Maishan
is
of the East,
the Mart of the Merchants
and therefore should repre
sent the borders or limit of the material
or hylic cosmos, its uttermost
world,
region upwards.
Babel-land and Sarbug would thus
stand for the state or states lying between
the region of direct commerce with the
East (or Light-world)
that is, the
region of the Heaven-world or Elysium
and the Earth-state.
These are presumably the
the
Middle
for in
is
50
1.
sealed
:
Distance
we
states
of
that is, Hades;
are told that the Letter
THE
"
HYMN OF
THE ROBE
OF GLORY.
Gainst the Children of Babel, the
vi^/1
wicked,
The tyrannical Daimons of Sarbug."
These are presumably under the rule of
the Prince of the Powers of the (Lower)
Air.
The rest of our space may now be
devoted to a few notes of detail, and to
an endeavour to suggest some considera
tions of a mystical nature that may be of
interest to those who delight in such
studies, on the ground that the whole
Poem is concerned with the mystery of the
Light-spark, or Spiritual Man, or Sonship, or Christ-nature.
66
NOTES.
The opening words seem to suggest,
from the human point of view, the Birth
of the Christ-nature
it
and
state before
its
descends into manifestation, or drops
into personality.
The "little child" may be taken to
denote the Light-spark (or Atmic ray),
as it was symbolically termed by the
but
in itself it is no
Gnostics
spark,"
the potentiality of the Fulness (Pleroma)
To aid our dim intuition it may
itself.
born
onto the plane
be regarded as
"
;
"
"
of the spirit from the ever-divine states
of the Fatherhood and Motherhood, of
Divine Light and Life.
means
when
the man below, the personal man, is
"
Little
also a
child,"
certain
or
"
little
one,"
stage in initiation,
bringing to birth, that is to consciousness,
the spiritual or Christ nature in himself.
67
THE
purity, innocence
instinct
(not mind
THE ROBE (harmlessness), spiritual
OF GLORY, in its ratiocinative mode), childlikeness.
HV1VTM OT?
It is characterized
by
In our Poem, however, it is not the man
is speaking, but the Spark or Son-
who
ship.
The Father s Kingdom
House
of At man, and the
"
"
is
"
the state
"
is
spiritual
Personality or Individuality, the
of the Higher Self.
2
Home
It is a state of Bliss, the activities of
and
the Child are of the nature of Bliss
the
Upringers," or Nurturers, are the
Arms of the Divine Life in which the
Child is cradled. "Wealth" and "Glories"
are characteristics of the Kingdom. The
Nurturers, as Nurses of the Divine Infant,
;
"
might
be
more
perhaps
characterized
From the
not so much
appropriately
"
"
by
fulness
"
and
"
"
rich-
often does
East
refer to a particular state
it indicates rather a
or a definite plane
"
East."
;
68
direction, which connotes as it were the
power of cutting directly through planes.
THE ROBE
Birth from the East is not so much a OF GLORY.
birth via planes, that is a stirring of
matter, as an inner way of immediate
But in the text it does not seem
arrival.
to be used in such a precise sense.
seems to denote the
Treasure
or instincts, of
the
senses
that
is,
Jewels,
the Spiritual Mind. There was a certain
this suggests the
of it
binding up
The
"
"
4
"
"
;
first
of
defining
space or limitation of
the Spirit.
and
light," spacious
but as yet not heavy or possessed of
It
was
gravity,
"
"
"
large
that
is
tension
or
relation
to
personal environment.
The Treasure was
man
carried in the
that is,
ftance of his nature.
of the
"
Land
;
of
"
"heart
5
in the innermost sub-
Gilan."
The
Geli (ol TjXoi)
were a people who inhabited the
69
district
6
now
ca^ ec^ Gflan, on the south-west
of the Caspian.
Be van, however,
OF GLORY, prefers
land of the upper ones," and
the Greek has it also.
Ganzak, or Gazzak, was a district in
HYMN OF
THE ROBE shore
"
Atropatene (Adharbaijan).
The Greek has:
Gold of the great
"
treasures
uncoined."
7
Kushan is perhaps Kashan in Persia,
north of Ispahan.
8
It may be that a precise symbolism,
connected with the nature of the per
fected
formal mind," may be hidden
under the names of the precious stones,
"
some
of
lation.
which are of uncertain trans
They would thus suggest a pure
vesture of a formal nature, correspond
ing with the mineral kingdom, with which
the soul or self is equipped or furnished.
The Greek glosses the Robe as "of
gold tissue with jewels
It is of
is,
has
"
"
Gold
Sun
"
incrusted."
and
Silver
that
and
Moon
powers.
"
"
";
"
70
"
"
"
or
Chalcedonies,"
Agates,"
are
a
"
THE
^
^
puzzle but the iris-hued," or iridescent, THE ROBE
colouring well represents the shimmer of OF GLORY,
or purified
all colours of the pure
glory,"
;
"
"
aura."
The Greek has
"
"
for
pearls
"iris-hued
[stones]."
to the spiritual
bound
is
the power of the hardest of all
the precious stones.
"
"
All this
man by
He
the
"
is
armed
with
Compare
"
Greek.
"
Sounding
Light
Oracles,
45.
ii.
Whether
of
or not there
according to
it,
Armour
"
The
in the
is
of
Chaldcean
term
Adamant
(Diamond) a play on
Adamas (Adam, the Primal Man) of
"
"
the
the
Mysteries, must be left to the decision
It is of interest, however, in
of the reader.
this connection to set down a passage
from the Naassene Document.
"
to the allegorical
souls cling in the
commentator writes
Rock
"
to
Odyssey,
:
Referring
which the
the
Jewish
"
HYMN OF
ThC R Ck meanS Adamas
The Corner stone which I
is
OF GLORY,
in the
:
insert
Foundation of Zion.
"
By
this
he
[Foundation]
means the plasm
10
This
*
THE ROBE
of
man."
(H.
[Isaiah]
i.
161.)
"
Purple Mantle." Purple is a sign of
royalty for our Poet is singing of a Royal
Soul.
(See The Chaldcean Oracles, ii. 74.)
Hoffmann makes the Mantle or Toga =
anima naturaliter divina. Compare 1. 26
;
:
"
"
And my rank
Stature
"
is
did long for
its nature."
in its root-sense a
ing upright," and
the idea of Him
may
and
of
"
who
"
stand
be compared with
has stood, stands,
The Great Announce
The Gnostic Crucifixion, p.
It is the Spiritual Mind of man, his
41.)
inner steadfastness and stability, and his
own measurement and monument.
shall stand
ment.
11
The
nance,
"
(See
"
or Covenant or Ordi
be compared with the words
Compact,"
may
72
of
one of the
64)
Hymns
of the
Sophia (P.5.
THE ROBE
:
OF GLORY.
"Thy
Commandment
[or Statute],
(O
hath brought me Below, and
descended like a Power of Chaos my
Power hath grown cold in me."
Light,)
I
am
;
was written
"
"
the heart
(cf.
This means, mystically, written
1.
55).
of the man, in
blood
in the spiritual
the life-substance of him, in the very
atoms of his substance. It was not
engraved on the mind, but written deep
down in the heart, so that it should not
It
in
"
"
be forgotten.
Memory
is
connected with past, present,
and future but this record could not be
really wiped out even when time should
be no more.
;
The
"
Pearl
is the Living Gnosis, or
of the Logos in
the
self-realization
again
the
or
man,
Kingdom of Heaven,"
again
or rather the
Kingship of the Heavens."
"
"
"
73
12
^ ut wky S^ OU^
these living ideas be
a
a precious
pearl
THE ROBE symbolized by
OF GLORY, thing, yet the product of disease ?
If we may be permitted to speculate
on the further meaning of a physical
fact not known to the ancient Gnostics,
we might suggest that Living Gnosis can
not be gained without the help of the
Opposing Powers, the mystical Adversary.
Gnosis from one point of view is the
union of the spiritual and personal man.
When the spiritual self would attain to
Divine consummation, there must be a
descent into the spheres of personality,
HYMN OF
"
"
where people and things
within
"
shells."
The
live, so to
spiritual
speak,
man
has
from within the Great Shell,
to
steal
or from within the shell side of things,
that most precious gem which is the
that
disease
product of self-will or
is of the
Opposer."
This mystery may also be called a
because, on the substance side
pearl
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
of things,
born, or
the
who
is
man
in
whom
born in Gnosis,
74
Gnosis is
for ever
is
wrapped in a pearly Glory, or his THE
becomes pearl-like to the THE^OBE
OF GLORY.
opened eye of the seer.
The oyster, or
or plasm,
jelly fish
after
substance
"
the
is
"
of personality, is the man
or unevolved buddhic sub
The Impersonal Spirit, or Atman,
shell
"
of
"
"
flesh,"
stance.
an earlier stage of evolution, descends
and stirs this substance to create, broods
over it, and it creates a
which
pearl,"
from the personal and selfish point of
view is not at first advantageous to the
at
"
jelly
fish."
"
"
This
pearl
again, later on, is a pure
substance or ichor which the buddhic
nature creates or secretes when Atman
begins to energize in the man.
The
"
"
is
loud-breathing
Serpent
the Lord of the
Typhon, the Opposer
passions or opposing forces of the planes
of form.
The Greek has
the Serpent the
Swallower," and Hoffmann has
poison;
"
"
breathed."
75
13
^
^
*
* course
e Ocean of
the
manifested
Genesis,
planes, or states
THE ROBE
OF GLORY, of manifestation
it
is
the Ocean of
life-and-death, or repeated birth, the
HYMN OF
"
e
^ ea
"
s>
;
Ever-becoming,
Samsara
the
Brahmans and Buddhists.
"
if
The
"
translation, reveals
is the cause of the
Typhon
"
the
poison,"
the
is
poison-breathed
of
"
correct
it
(Apepi)
disease
operated
;
"
by the Opposer.
14
The Pearl
is
thus again perfected
root-form, or the
permanent atom
of experience, so to speak, to which the
"
"
Robe of Glory and Mantle of Royalty
can be attached, and so union be achieved
between the upper and lower.
The Robe is the Cosmic Texture of
Light and Life, and
is
stamped and sealed
by the Great Name
of
the
Spiritual
Individuality.
15
"
Thy
Brother,"
comments
(p.
45),
as
we have
seen in the
means from one point
of view the Demiurgic or Architectural or
76
THE
Building Power, in an inner mystical sense
the Obedient Opposer of Life, own Twin THE ROBE
In a still more mysterious OF GLORY.
to Atman.
not
is
sense that
brought out in our Poem,
the
Christ, may be said to go to
Atman,
seek His lost Brother (in the Christianized
Gnosis this was generally His lost Sister
or Spouse, the Sophia or Wisdom)
they unite in the Mystery of the Sacred
;
Marriage or At-one-ment, and become
Heir of Infinity and Eternity.
The Christ descends and carries off
or saves the Pearl, thus attaching Himself
to the Pure Essence, purified by suffering,
born of the energy of the Opposer within
form, and so wins the way back to the
The Opposer
Kingdom.
is
Next -in-rank
to God.
has been suggested that because of
idea our Poem has been very
twin
appropriately inserted into the Acts of
Judas Thomas, that is, of Judas the Twin
and certainly this hidden
of Jesus
mysticism of Judas the Twin and Judas
the Betrayer was highly elaborated by
It
this
"
"
;
77
THE
the Gnostics, so that
N
?HE ROBE
we even
find traces
of a Gospel of Judas.
OF GLORY.
The
16
"
Couriers,"
Letter-carriers,
or
Messengers
Per. Parwankin),
(lit.
are,
in
one sense, a Twin-Ray from the Mind of
the Master of all masterhood, Boundless
Light, the true Father-Mother of the
Soul that is striving to bring itself to
birth.
The
Way from the East," in its
more immediate mystical meaning, de
notes a direct path through matter by
means of a Ray of the True Sun, of the
"
17
nature of a
"
"
"
lightning-flash," as set forth
so graphically in the mystery-poem known
as The Chaldcean Oracles (II. 19)
it
blazes
directly through matter, and
;
"
"
does not meander through the labyrinth
In our Poem, however,
there is a descent through planes or
of the planes.
states.
Maishan perhaps connotes
of
the
Quintessence
78
or
One
the
plane
Element
(Buddhi), the complement and source of
The Land
THE
HYMN OF
THE ROBE
Babel suggests presumably OF GLORY.
the confused sounds (the confusion of
of
"
"
astral
or
tongues) of the personal
emotional state and the walls of Sarbug
may stand for the city of the personal
formal mind, the labyrinth of personal;
mind-made
planes.
Thereon comes the plunge into the
physical
body (Egypt), when the
direct
guidance of the Twin- Ray ceases for a
time.
In
mystical
physiology
this
may signify something within the
or
perhaps
the
"
elemental
Serpent
"blood,"
essence,"
which must
sleep, or be quieted, before
the heavenly ichor can be born, or the
pearl," the real root-purity within form,
"
be detached from the downward current,
and attached again to Atman. Compare
A Mithriac Ritual (p. 28)
:
"For
that
a
man/,
79
N.N., Son
of
21
N NAT
em
,_
born of tne mortal womb
-ir
and of spermatic ichor,
(/^w.)
THE ROBE
OF GLORY, yea of this ichor, which at Thy Hands to
day hath undergone the transmutation of
re-birth [or birth from Above]
one,
from so many tens of thousands, trans
formed to immortality in this same hour,
-
rlYMNr Ur
-
^
/
(f
AT
*V-
by God
)
/?
\
good pleasure, of God tran
[a man, I say] presumes
to worship Thee, and supplicates with
whatsoever power a mortal hath."
s
scendent Good
,
Compare this with the ancient reading
of the Great Utterance at the Mystical
Baptism Rite
"
Thou
have
my
Beloved Son
begotten thee
I
The
art
:
"
"
lodging
is,
literally,
"
place for travellers
inn, or caravanserai.
"
simply
may
"den
call to
or
that
80
is
The
"hole."
mind the
this
;
day
"
I
a
"
lodgingto say, an
Greek has
And
here
we
following paragraph
from Hippolytus* summary of Valentinian
HYMN OF
j
THE RO BE
OF GLORY.
,
doctrine
:
And this material man is, according
to them, as it were, an inn, or dwellingplace, at one time of the soul alone, at
another time of the soul and daimonian
existences [elemental essences], at another
of the soul and words [logoi, or angels
"
reasonable essences] which are words
sown from Above from the Common
Fruit of the Pleroma [the Christ] and
or
Wisdom
[the Divine Mother]
into
this
dwelling in the body of clay
together with the soul, when daimons
ceased to cohabit with her." (F. p. 352).
world,
This is the body in Egypt, or the
world or cosmos of gross matter.
As the original Jewish writer of the
canonical Apocalypse tells us (Rev. xi. 7, 8):
hylic
*
The Beast that ascendeth out of the
Abyss shall make war with them, and
overcome them, and slay them.
"
*
F
81
THE
And
N
their carcase [shall lie]
the Great Cit y which is
THE ROBE
Street
OF GLORY,
ally called
To
adds
"
24
f
Sodom and
which
the
in
the
s P iritu -
Egypt."
Christian
over-writer
:
Where
also our
Lord was
crucified."
Who
may
this noble youth from the East
be mystically, I am unable precisely
conjecture, unless it refers to the
voice of conscience," the spiritual ten
dencies in the natural man. The reader,
however, may be reminded of the sup
position in the Preamble (p. 13), that
to
"
it may be autobiographical.
Preuschen interprets it in terms of the
historically
Gospel-story the Son being the Christ,
and the noble youth Jesus. But this
does not work out.
;
28
I
have adopted the reading of Nicetas;
seems
I
warned him
Syriac
"
the
"
hopelessly confusing.
82
Before the true reunion can take place,
not only must the evil one be saved,"
but the
saviour
must be
lost," and
dealt with
the
Christ
treacherously
must be "betrayed." Without this there
would not be perfect balance. It is the
formal mind that betrays.
The "food" is the "food of the
world
of P.S. 346
compare also the
passage (ibid. 282)
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
";
"
;
:
And
the Babe eateth of the Delights
Food-stuffs] of the World of the
Rulers
and the Power absorbeth from
the portion of the Power which is in the
and the Soul absorbeth from
Delights
the portion of the Soul that is
in
the Delights
and the Counterfeit Spirit
absorbeth from the portion of the Evil
which is in the Delights and in its desires
whilst
the Body absorbeth
from the
"
[or
;
;
;
;
unperceptive Matter (Hyle) which
the Delights."
With the
forgetfulness,
83
or
is
in
oblivion,
32
THE
induced by the Victuals,
THE ROBE compare a passage from one
or Delights,
of the Hymns
OF GLORY, of Repentance of the Sophia (P.S. 63)
"
and
They have taken away
my Power is dried up.
my
:
Light,
have forgotten my Mystery which
performed from the beginning.
Because of the din [or confusion] of
the Fear and Power of Arrogant [the
"
I
I
"
Opposer,
my
the
Serpent
Power hath
The
failed
of
self-interest],
me."
"
draught of oblivion," or forgetfulness, is also described at length in the
Pistis Sophia (see, for instance, pp. 281,
385).
35
The
"
weight of their
leled in P.S.
victuals" is
by the
(281)
paral
"
very heavy
weight of forgetfulness."
In a wider and more mystical sense
the food that Atman now eats has to
do with the formal mind in the mode of
thus is its simplicity
subject and object
;
84
and
and so
differentiated,
food-eater,
time and objects
;
it
becomes food and
j. N op
brought down into THE ROBE
and then the curse of OF GLORY.
is
memory and
forgetfulness begins, and the
true natural instinctual awareness of the
Spirit sleeps.
The spiritual germ has now become
embedded in man and is fast asleep in
substance
and a great impulse, an
is
earthquake,
required to arouse it and
awake it from the dead.
;
For
to,"
on
"
And
Be van
my
this is the counsel
"
gives
:
they came
So they wove a plan
behalf."
"
"
is
the key- word, then,
taking
conjunction with the idea
of the Letter to which every Prince, or
Noble, set his Name, we may hazard
the conjecture that, in one sense, it may
be taken as referring to the mystery of
re-incarnation
it suggests the
weaving,
out of all previous lives, some sort of a
plan or destiny, stamped with the Name
If
plan
it
in
;
of every Prince.
39
THE
THE ROBE
The Princes may be thought of as
of the King; they represent
"facets"
OF GLORY, the
"
Spiritual
"
or
Mind, or
faces
would thus stand
"
"
Highest
for not
the
of
personae
Self.
They
the prior
existences of the man, but rather such
lives as had been able to manifest some
portion of that Spiritual Mind.
The Letter might thus be said to be
woven out of the substance" of previous
lives, to which each proper person or facet
of the spiritual Wholeness supplies its due
share.
This immediately attracts the
all
"
soul
in
last
its
incarnation,
for
it
is
itself.
This Letter or Plan, woven out of the
permanencies of a man s previous_ incar
nations, is sealed by the Father of Atman,
so that it shall not be torn to pieces as
it descends through the regions or planes.
It would naturally have a tendency to
be scattered
its substance would natu
rally remain on the plane of substance,
its mind-tendencies
on the plane of
mind but that would be to be no more
;
;
86
from
permanencies
all
the
planes,
the
fruitage of experience.
THE
THE*ROBE
These are now gathered together into OF GLORY,
one Plan which is sealed by the Father
of universals, or wholenesses or monads
or aeons, and so it continues to be whole
"
even until it reaches the man,
right
on the physical plane or in his
down
natural body
and that is how wholeness
in consciousness is born.
It is a sort of
"
;
germ
of wholeness.
"
King
16
of
Compare Rev.
kings."
xix.
41
:
And He hath in His Vesture and on
His Thigh a Name written
King of
"
:
kings and Lord of
*
"
Remember thy
The Book
Rev.
"
lords."
iii.
5
of
glorious
the
and
Compare
Robe,"
Heroes."
:
He who
defiling his
thus conquereth [by not
garments] shall be clothed in
87
46
THE
White Robes, and
THE ROBE Name
I will not blot
out of the Book of Life
his
"
OF GLORY.
is
Every man has
his
a Great Book.
See Rev. xx. 12
And
"
book
"
and there
:
saw the Dead, the great and
standing in the Presence of
books were
Throne, and [their]
another
And
vii.,
[Dan.
10].
opened
Book was opened, which is [The Book]
of Life
[Dan. xii.,
"
the
the
I
little,
i]."
5i
The Eagle, or Hawk, was the name of
the highest grade of the Mithriaca the
Fathers. See A Miihriac Ritual (p. 18),
where the Father s prayer ends
:
"
self
all
I, Eagle as I am, by my own
soar to Heaven, and contemplate
So that
may
things."
The
may be
Eagle-letter which
paralleled with the Descent of the Dove
flew in the air
in the Baptism-Mystery
88
the Bright ^Ether of the Supernal _Realms,
MN OF
or the state of Divine Breath (Atman)
THE ROBE
as it contacted the inmost or spiritual OF GLORY*
plasm of the man, his Buddhic nature,
or the nature of his Depth, the Depth of
or
his substance, it became
all sound
;
"
"all
"
speech."
The
Buddhic nature is the Quint
essence or One Element, the Aither or
^Ether, the Shining One
just as in
Sanskrit A-kasha is par excellence the
Very Shining One, and its root -charac
;
"
teristic is
It
sound."
was a true Bath-Kol, or Voice from
Heaven, as the mystical Rabbis called
Lit.
Bath-Kol = Daughter of the
it.
Voice
that
;
is
to say,
Echo
of the
Word
Name.
or
This Voice is the Inner Voice, the Voice
Within, the Voice of the Silence. The
the sound
sound of its winging," or
of its rustling," suggest another great
symbol the rustling or the activities of
the "leaves" (powers and permanencies)
"
"
:
F
i
89
53
THE
on the man s true "Tree of Life," as
the
wind or Divine Breath stirs them,
ROBE
OF GLORY, thus awaking them to true activity
and
life.
"
54
took
I
it
and kissed
it,"
etc.
Thereby
the two united
the
seal
which held
it together as a wholeness was
loosed,"
and there was union. The Plan and
"
"
;
"
atom matched atom in
Blood."
The Intelligible
married the Sensible, and the Christ was
born, the Eternal Memory.
Heart united,
"
Mind
"
55
"
E en
and
as
It is written
Thoth
the
"
stood in my heart writ."
Scribe of the Gods,
Divine, the Tongue and
it
by the
Heart of the Eternal.
2
iii.,
"
Compare
//. Cor.
:
Ye
our
are our Letter written in
hearts."
"
62
that
Filthy and unclean garments
or
bodies
the man s unrhythmic
"
"
is,
90
"
rather
vehicles."
He leaves his personal -plane garments or vehicles behind
"
on each plane,
THE
THE^OBE
a butterfly leaving his OF GLORY.
these
do not die, or go
grub-case
only
into trance, they go on with their
filthy
or
duties.
daily
They are the bodies
of
dross."
(See The Chaldcean Oracles,
like
;
"
"
"
"
"
ii.
38).
His Great Plan, or Spiritual Mind-and-
64
Substance, goes on
before,
precedes
and proceeds. Its Voice or Life is its
feminine power that awakens and brings
to birth
its
Light is its masculine
potency that guides, controls, orders
the mode that happens after the awaken
;
ing or resurrection.
The
red
"
fabric of silk
"
suggest
Atmic radiance.
Burkitt translates
"
to
For
"
and
Buddhic
it
"
letters of
substance
and
:
began to make
glow."
91
its silken folds
66
69
And
so the
"
"
"
"
or
passes
up
in
the
indeed
planes, though
through
it does not move
the Spark becomes a
Flame. It is the life and journey of a
"
Spark
"
;
Spark and not of any man -neophyte
though of course the life and journey of
any initiate would have many things
;
in
common.
The meeting-place of the merchants."
This and the next line seem to be a
"
70
doublet.
72
Father-Mother, the Supreme Mystery,
give the Glory-Robe of Spiritual Life
and Light to the Twin-Powers of Spiritual
Mind, to bestow it on the returning
Victor (or Prodigal) ascending the Sacred
Way
in
Triumph.
The Robe
which
is
sent
down from Hyrcania,
was the Mount
for the Parthians
of the Gods, the
Height of Heaven, their
Meru.
76
"
The Glory looked
92
like
my own
self."
E
the same idea as that which HYMN nn
Ur
i
r
T
j.1^
the
underlies the mirror-play of lacchos,
THE ROBE
Young Bacchus of the Mysteries. Com- OF GLORY.
pare also //. Cor. iii. 18
This
is
i
:
"
With unveiled
face
mirroring
the
Glory of the Lord, we are transformed
into the same Likeness [or Image] from
Glory to Glory as by the Breath of the
Lord."
Burkitt translates
"
Myself
I
saw as
:
in a glass before
my
face."
When
the illuminated neophyte
first
77
sees the Self in all things, he sees it as
himself reflected in all things. This is
a great danger for many.
"
The King
"
of
Kings Image suggests
that originally the Embroidered Robe
had been woven by the Mother only;
93
86
HYMN OF
THE ROBE
k ut now
I
OF GLORY.
87
ma
"
i.
is
i*
stamped
all
over with the
e or Likeness of the Father.
With
26
Sapphires."
Compare
Ezekiel
:
And above the Firmament that was
over their heads was the likeness of a
Throne as the appearance of a sapphire
stone
and upon the likeness of the
Throne was the likeness as the appear
ance of a Man upon
"
:
it."
And
Exodus xxiv. 10
also
:
And they saw the God of Israel
and there was under His Feet as it were a
paved work of sapphire stone, as it were
the Body pf Heaven in his clearness."
"
:
88
"
The Motions
suggestion
state
of
man s own
of Gnosis."
There is a
here of a certain dramatic
consciousness where, by the
activities,
The Robe
is
as
it
he talks to himself.
were the one uniting
94
substance, or quintessence, which holds
j N Qp
all things in its embrace, and with it THE RO BE
comes the idea of reflection from oneself OF GLORY,
so that when the illumined
onto it
seer contemplates it all the activities or
;
motions of any object become knowledges,
or everything seems to stir as if to speak,
or
become
ties vital
It is
the
vocal, so that
by
knowledge or gnosis
self
these activi
is increased.
talking to the self
by means
of action.
I
emended version
follow Burkitt s
in
Qi
his review of Preuschen.
The Glory
Compare Rev.
"
of
Him who had
xxi. 23
sent
it."
For the Glory of God did lighten
[the Heavenly City], and the Lamb
"
the
Lamp
The
it
is
thereof."
Greek
"
"
sweet-sounding
rendered by Hoffmann as
and he
99
:
refers to Rev.
95
i.
is
"water-organs,"
15
:
103
"
ROBB
And
His Voice as the sound of
many
waters."
OF GLORY.
And
"
also Rev. xix. 6
:
And
great
many
I heard as it were the Voice of a
multitude, and as the Voice of
waters, and as the Voice of mighty
thunderings, saying, Alleluia
And
"
again Jeremiah
When He
li.
"
!
55
16,
:
uttereth His Voice there
a multitude of
is
waters."
"
Because the Lord hath spoiled
Babylon, and destroyed out of her the
Great Voice
when her waves do roar
;
like great waters, a noise of their voice
is
104
uttered."
Professor
"
Burkitt
The remains
writes
of yet
:
another stanza
THE
appear in Syriac. Only
N op
one is untrans- THE ROBE
lateable, the second is utterly unmet rical, OF GLORY.
and the third which appears to be the
of
the
Hymn
three lines are preserved
;
concluding line of the Poem contains
a very doubtful word. Probably the
copy used by the editor who inserted the
Hymn in The Acts of Thomas was badly
damaged at the end. The fragments,
thus completed, seem to be genuine,
for we almost require some mention of
the Pearl at the end of the Poem.
I
cannot attempt to venture the two mis
sing lines, but the general sense appears
to be as follows
"
:
Now,
I
wait
with
while
courts
acclamation
all
His
resound,
until
fulfilled
His gracious
Promise
be
:
Him to the Royal Council I
should go,
And with my Pearl appear before them
That with
at
His
side.
97
Whatever may be its precise interTHE ROBE pretation and the Mystic at any rate
OF GLORY, knows that in vita, things there cannot
HYMN OF
possibly be one formal
there will be few
admit that this ancient
interpretation
who will not
Poem of the
Gnosis is beautiful.
For ourselves, we
end with the hope that, when it is better
only
known, no few
may
find
it
inspiring
and
illuminating also.
Note.
Journal of Theological Studies
(London, April, 1908), vol. ix. No. 35,
p. 473, in a review by C. H. W. Johns
Emil Behren s Assyrisch-babylonische
Briefe Kultischen Inhalts aus Sargoniden-
of
zeit (Leipzig,
1906)
:
"The
mention of Nabu s writing the
Credit on account of the King and his
sons in the Book of life to last for ever
is noteworthy.
Deeply interesting are the
double and
pilgrimages of the King s
the royal cloak (or pallium
*
?)."
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